The Goulburn Valley Playing Area powerhouse celebrated one of its own at the weekend, as Mitch Sidebottom took out back-to-back successes in the Goulburn Valley Bowls Men’s State Singles title.
It was a long wait for Sidebottom to complete his second straight championship run after the initial games began before Christmas.
The action picked up with the first two rounds of finals on January 21, where Sidebottom received a bye before dominating on the greens against Shepparton Park’s Ray Saville.
Things heated up on Sunday as Sidebottom worked harder to knock over Kyabram’s Brent Reiner — who graciously spoke to The News live from the rinks at Shepparton Golf Bowling Club — in his semi-final.
Sidebottom overcame stiff resistance from Golf’s own Ben Fletcher in the final, getting over the line 3-25 to 0-18 to seal the deal.
Overcoming scheduling difficulties that had not been an issue the previous year was an effort in itself.
“Most every other year games have been played on back-to-back weekends and generally before Christmas, but they ran out of weekends,” Sidebottom said.
“It made it hard because the Christmas break is generally when you have your two to three weeks to freshen up again and it gets you a bit rusty.”
It’s been a bumper month for Goulburn Valley bowls with the Byers Electrical pairs tournament, Region Sides championships and the culmination of these singles events all squeezing in alongside the club pennant.
Playing one-on-one is an enjoyable difference for Sidebottom — not that such a statement should shock anyone, given his success in the field.
“When I was first playing bowls, singles was always my favourite event,” Sidebottom said.
“As I’ve got older, I love the team aspect a lot more and the pennant is probably number one with the team’s camaraderie.
“It’s a nice change to play singles, though.”
There were some jitters once things got under way; you wouldn’t assume by looking at the scorelines, but Sidebottom faced a deficit in each knockout game he played.
“I was confident I’d bowl better (last weekend) than the previous, just because I wasn’t really ready for the first week,” Sidebottom said.
“I knew I’d have to be on top of my game against Brent (in the semi), and then Ben got the first six shots of the final match.
“I might have won the next five ends and I felt confident from there that I could keep playing how I was.
“The greens at Shepparton Golf were sensational, which allowed a great standard of bowls.”
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